16.5.11

The Collective – Press Release

The Collective present a selected contemporary exhibition of weird and wonderful collections and peculiar artifacts from artists and non-artists alike.

The exhibition is part of the Fringe Arts Bath festival taking place at The Officers Club, Stall Street, Bath between May 27th and June 12th 2011, 11-6pm.

Opening night Friday 27th May 6-9pm.

Items on display in this collection of curios and obsessions range from a bald man’s fascination with combs to a grandmother’s collation of 40 years worth of Scrabble games, a beleaguered artist’s stack of rejection letters, lost keys, found objects, apple cores, fruit stickers, football stickers, meticulously detailed and archived photographs of garlic, objets d’art and objects de’ not art. These curious curios, unconventional archives, objects and images, paraphernalia and ephemera, sit alongside everyday obsessions, repetitions and observations in their many forms offering a fascinating insight into the act or art of collecting.

The ephemera and collectables in the show have been sought and curated by The Collective who themselves have a passion for stuff and stuff gatherers, having met at a cereal packet convention in America in 1989. Mirroring current contemporary exhibitions such as the Wellcome Trust’s ‘Things’ exhibition and outsider art at The Museum of Everything, the show rediscovers the tactility of the passionate object in a time of throw away technology and digital archivism.

In collaboration with the re-opening of The Holburne Museum in Bath, and as part of the Fringe Arts Bath fortnight, The Collective have programmed photographer and enthusiastic collector Martin Parr to give a talk about his obsessions and collections which will include his passion for M1 memorabilia. The talk on May 31st 7pm will take place in the museum itself with an introduction by The Collective’s Ian Smith who will be discussing his own detailing and arranging of Panini football stickers to the point of madness. Tickets for this event are available from The Holburne Museum’s box office.

Entrance to the exhibition is free and there will also be a chance to become part of The Collective’s own collection.

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About Me

'The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector.'
Our project will be exhibited as part of the Fringe Arts Bath festival from May-June 2011 - the aim is to curate and create a contemporary and conceptual physical exhibition that realises the obsessive personal collections amassed by fans of tactile ephemera.